Until My Next Adventure
by LostMyPenName
Summary: Newly graduated Hiccup is on his way to a brave new world of exploration and science in the Guiana Highlands of Venezuela. With a ten-man crew, the best equipment money can buy, and a thirst for discovery, he searches for brand new species' to further modern ethology research. What he discovers instead is love, friendship, and the trip of a lifetime.
1. Chapter 1: Journal

**I got super inspired when I watched the first trailer for The Hidden World and this was what came from that inspiration. I'm not planning for this to be a super long fic, I'm aiming for 10 chapters give or take. Not sure how quickly I'll be able to finish, especially with my other two fics going on, but I'll do my best to post when I can. Please leave me a review if you have any thoughts and I hope you enjoy!**

Chapter 1: Journal

I had spent the early morning reading, as I usually did, mom had left my bags out for me, she didn't like how I had procrastinated packing until the last couple days. She kept asking me if I would be homesick, I think she was worried that I didn't want to go but wouldn't speak up about it. The house was empty by the time I started packing, which was how I liked it, I focused better when I was alone. I placed all of my essential items across the floor of my bedroom, looking over them to make sure I had everything. Passport, toothbrush, shampoo, headphones, laptop...would they have a place for me to plug in my computer? Maybe it would be smart to bring a book with me, encase the plane had no outlets, something classic, something old. I stood up from the floor and moved towards my bookcase, scanning over all my options, The Time Machine by H.G. Wells popped into my head, it was a good read, one I hadn't enjoyed in a long time. As my eyes moved over the books shelf by shelf I began to realize it was missing and cursed under my breath. Had someone borrowed it without telling me?

I stepped over the items covering the floor and made my way down the stairs and towards the family bookshelf, I didn't look at it often. I liked keeping my own books, and I didn't much like it when anyone took from my shelf without asking, or at all really. I didn't see it upon first searching, but the shelf was quite high, reaching all the way to the ceiling. I stepped up onto one of the lower shelves, grabbing onto the highest and using it to pull myself up. It was dusty up on the top two shelves, most of the books up there looked like they hadn't been touched in ages. I couldn't see anything that resembled my book, but right by my nose, I noticed a thick nylon case in army green, with a zipper going around three sides of it. I grabbed it from off of the shelf and carefully climbed down where I could get a better look at it. The case was coated in a thick layer of dust that fell off in clumps as I unzipped it to see what was inside, as I was about to open it, a loud knock came at the front door.

I grumbled, placing the case down onto the coffee table and walked over to answer it, taking a brief moment to look at myself in the mirror. I had not brushed my hair since waking up, we weren't expecting visitors until tonight. I raked my fingers through my moppy auburn hair and smoothed it down a little more with my hands, trying to seem at least a little presentable, before unlocking and opening the door.

"Mr. Jorgenson," I said, a little surprised at the sudden visit. It was an old friend of my parents who lived nearby, he stood on the doorstep in his military uniform, straight black hair combed back neatly, meaty hand holding a bottle of chardonnay. "Dinner won't be for a while, it's still the morning."

"Is your father home?" he asked, eyes scanning the inside of the foyer.

I shook my head. "He left for work a couple hours ago."

"Still? I thought classes ended last week?" I shrugged. "Too bad, I thought we could catch up a little before all the guests arrived, my wife and son won't be here until tonight, guess I'll have to drive up with them after all."

"Guess so," I moved to close the door, but he continued.

"You graduated this year didn't you?"

"Yeah, you were there remember? Your son was the same year as me?"

He slapped his hands together. "Ah, of course, yes, I remember now. They put you way in the back, I could barely see you. Well, congratulations, I never did say it."

"...Thanks."

"Your mother isn't home either?"

"It's only me at the moment."

He leaned in a little and spoke quietly. "Between you and me...she's not the one cooking tonight is she?" he asked.

I shook my head. "No, Gobber said he'd come over to do the cooking, should be here later this afternoon I think."

He sighed in relief, leaning back away from me. "That's good to hear."

I stared at him. "Is there anything else?" I asked, eager to get back to the case that I had left sitting on the coffee table.

"No, no, I won't keep you any longer, I'm sure you have plenty to do. I'll see you tonight then," he said as he turned around and headed back down the steps of the porch and onto the street where he had parked his truck.

I closed the door, quickly walking back to the living room and sitting down on the floor with my legs underneath the coffee table. I opened the case, inside was a worn old journal, filled to the brim, not a page left blank. Never had I seen this journal before, despite how old and used it looked, the pages were slightly crinkled and didn't quite shut completely, most likely from being opened so many times. The words on the pages were all handwritten, parts of it seemed informative, a few sketches, but most of it was dated journal entries. I flipped back to the front, the first page, it was entitled: "_Expedition; Guiana Highlands, Venezuela"_

My interest was piqued, even I could admit that. I wondered if the journal I held was even real or not, if it had been bought by one of my parents or maybe left behind by the house's previous owner. Either way, I wanted to read more, so I flipped the page and continued on reading.

"_The flight had been a miserable one, and the layover in __Caracas_ _was several hours longer than had been expected. Nothing seemed to be going right, at every turn there seemed to be more and more delays. Gobber had flown in two months earlier to BC so he and my mother could hammer out the details before the expedition. For the past year, Gobber had been working in West Bengal studying animals in the __Ranthambore National Park. He was an old family friend, and he had come early with the intention of spending some time with us before the trip. Of course, nothing seemed to go smoothly, and the majority of his time had been spent trying to work everything out on time._

_Even with his best efforts we still ended up pushing the expedition back slightly. Mom's work had asked last minute for her to stay a little longer, and of course she accepted, she never was the type to turn someone away. It was decided that Gobber would go ahead without us to make sure everything was good on the Venezuelan end. _

_All that time had just made me think that maybe this trip was a mistake, I was too eager and the whole thing had been poorly planned from the start. We were working with a small crew, something I thought would be better, but which I had slowly begun to regret. For such a long expedition we should've gotten more people. Unfortunately, we were too close now to hire anyone else nor cancel the thing entirely. Even the little crew we did have were from all different parts of the world, and most of them I had never met before, something I was very against from the beginning, but my mother seemed unconcerned about. I had a sinking feeling that this trip wasn't going to go well, but I pushed forward anyway, hoping for the best. _

_When the plane touched down in Venezuela it was dark and cloudless out, not too cold, a bit of chill in the air. Gobber met us outside the terminal and took us over to the Hostel in an old rental van..."_

* * *

"Who else is here?" I asked, using two hands to lug our suitcase up the hostel stairs and towards our second-floor room. Gobber came up behind me, grabbing one of the handles and giving the suitcase a good heave to get it over the final step and into the narrow hall. "Thanks."

"It's us and the geologist right now, he's waiting in our room for us, the others haven't arrived yet, or are meeting us at the helicopter site," Gobber explained, shuffling past me so he could lead us to the room. He rummaged through his pockets and fished out the room key as he walked. "Gothi will be flying in from Belize tomorrow morning so I'll be up early to go get her, you don't have worry about that though, I won't wake you."

"Gothi?" I said, looking over at my mom then back to Gobber. "Who's she again?"

My mom touched me on the shoulder. "You remember Gothi right? She's an old friend of mine and your father's, she visited a few times when you were quite young. Around six or seven I think was the last time you saw her."

"You and dad have a lot of old friends mom, that hardly narrows it down."

Gobber stopped by one of the doors and gestured low to the ground. "Real short lady, old, doesn't talk any," he said before turning towards the door and unlocking it.

I shrugged and walked into the room, pulling the suitcase along with me. "I don't remember her at all, what does she do?"

"You were young, you've probably forgotten," my mom said as she followed in after me. I could hear the click as Gobber shut and locked the door behind us. "She does a lot of things, not much these days because of her age, I'm a little surprised she agreed to come out here."

Gobber chuckled to himself. "I was certain she would refuse us, almost didn't bother asking. She's been retired for a few years now, doesn't even teach anymore."

"What's her field?"

"A botanist and a mycologist, a great one at that. She's not quite as nimble as she used to be so she might slow us down a tad, but she's well worth it I promise," Gobber said.

As I walked further into the room I noticed another person sitting by the window on a laptop. He was a heavy-set fellow, sandy blonde hair and a large round face, he looked up at me from his screen, the light reflecting off of his small wire-framed glasses. My mother brushed past me and approached the man, hand extended forward. "You must be Fishlegs, it's a pleasure."

He moved his laptop and stood up, taking his glasses off as he did. "Yes, thank you for the opportunity," he said carefully shaking her hand.

She quickly turned towards me and motioned for me to come closer. "This is my son, Hiccup, he's the ethologist for this trip, you and him are a similar age, you both just graduated recently too."

"Hi," I said awkwardly as I took a few steps closer. "You're the geologist I take it?"

Fishlegs nodded. "That's right." Mom smiled at both of us and walked off to speak with Gobber. It was clear she wanted me to make more friends, she always seemed concerned with how little time I spent out with others, but this felt like an awkward play-date. Fishlegs seemed just as socially inept as I was, and that probably didn't help much either. "Your first expedition?" he asked.

I pressed my lips together and nodded. "Yeah, you?"

"Yeah."

There was a long awkward pause and we both glanced across the room to where Gobber and my mom were, they had unrolled a large map onto one of the beds and stood over it, inspecting it. She pointed. "We should…"

He nodded. "Yeah."

We walked over to the bed and stood on the opposite side, looking down at the map. "Do we have a plan for tomorrow?" I asked, glancing over at Gobber.

"After we've got Gothi and packed up we'll head out in the rental van and pick up two more before driving to the other airport, that's where we'll meet the others and head out in the helicopter. It'll probably take an hour and a half to fly to the closest clearing, give or take. Once we're on the plateau the expedition leader will take us from there, said it would take a few days to a week of hiking to get to the holes."

"Wait, wait," I said waving a hand. "Expedition leader? I thought _you_ were the expedition leader?" I asked turning to my mom. "When did this other guy come into the mix?"

"Well there's an expedition leader, and an _expedition leader_, you know?" Gobber explained, rather poorly.

My mom laughed. "What Gobber is _trying_ to say is that; I am the expedition leader as in I am the person in charge of what's going on and the research, but we need someone to keep us from, you know, dying or getting lost and then dying."

"So you hired, what? A tour guide?"

Gobber shook his head. "No, no, survival expert would be a more accurate term, this isn't any old tour we're going on, this is uncharted territory, we need someone who knows how to handle the wilderness, we're going to be out there for a while."

I turned towards my mother. "You're an ecologist, and we have a biologist and a geologist, if we needed more help why didn't you hire more scientists as I suggested?"

"Honey it's not about how many scientists we have, trust me, I've been on plenty expeditions to know. You should always have someone who knows how to navigate the area you're working in, it's a safety issue," she said looking over at me. "Besides, we need someone with rock-climbing experience to get us into the sinkholes."

"Did you do a background check?" I asked. "There could be some very significant findings and I don't want him to-"

Gobber plonked a hand on my shoulder. "We did the same checks that we do for everyone we hire, Hiccup. You don't have to be worried, everyone on this expedition is top notch."

I sighed and crossed my arms. "I thought it was just going to be scientists coming with us, this is a protected area, and we're dealing with sensitive materials, possibly undiscovered species."

"Hiccup, sweetheart, I understand your concerns, but Gobber and I have been doing this for years. We always take care in who we hire, and we always speak to everyone to make sure they understand what kind of a place we're entering," she said smiling down at me. "Every precaution has been taken."

I nodded reluctantly. "Alright, I suppose you know better than I do."

"Don't worry so much boy'o," Gobber said giving me a grin and a pat on the back. "This isn't our first rodeo, we know what we're doing."

My mom rolled the map back up and put it aside, leaning it up against the wall by the closet. "We can discuss the rest on our ride over, right now we should be getting as much rest as we can. It's going to be a long day tomorrow."

"She's right," Gobber said shuffling over to the other end of the room. "I'll open up the pull-out, you boys can share the double over there," he said gesturing to the larger bed on the far side of the room.

We both nodded and began preparing for bed. I climbed in beside Fishlegs, who turned over and quickly fell asleep. I shuffled through my bag and pulled out my journal, it was still brand new, in a shiny waterproof case. My mom had bought it for me a few days before the flight, said it would be good to write my thoughts down during the expedition. I unzipped the case and plucked out the pen that was tucked inside, clicking it with my thumb. The words came easier than I thought they would, and before I knew it I had nearly three pages full.

Gobber looked over at me from his own bed across the room. "I'm going to call it a night, you should do the same," he said, reaching over to his bedside lamp and shutting it off. "Goodnight."

"Goodnight," I echoed quietly. Rest would be important, hiking was nothing to be scoffed at, especially not hiking in the uncharted jungle. I had been camping a few times before, even went on a couple of hiking trails. My mom, however, had made it abundantly clear to me that this wouldn't be even remotely close to that. This trip wasn't a vacation, it was work, and it was hard work.

Gobber woke up early as he had said, the sound of him shuffling around the room had roused me but I was too sleepy to remember much else, and I fell back asleep soon after. It only felt like minutes before he had returned, and the loud ringing of my alarm split through the silence and jolted me awake again. I shut off the alarm and stumbled groggily out of bed, my mom had already gotten dressed and she stood near the door speaking with Gobber and a small old woman. By her age, small stature, and a distinct lack of speaking I could tell right away who it was, Gothi, our botanist and mycologist. She was older than I had expected, I knew she was retired, but she was so small and frail looking, I was certain she wouldn't make the trip out to the sinkholes.

My mom waved me over upon seeing I was up. "This is Gothi," she introduced, gesturing towards the small woman. "You probably don't remember her, she visited your father and I a few times when you were little." Gothi smiled up at me and began signing to my mother. "She says you've grown quite a bit."

"Hi," I said waving to her awkwardly. "It's nice to meet you, uh, again."

Gothi signed to my mom. "She says she looks forward to working with you."

I nodded. "Same here."

From across the room, Gobber threw me a granola bar and I caught it against my chest. "Make sure you eat something, and start packing we leave in thirty." He turned and tossed Fishlegs one as well. "That goes for you too."

My mother pulled out our suitcase and unzipped it, revealing the packed up tents inside. I made sure I had all my things in my bag, going over the items carefully, passport, toothbrush, shampoo, headphones, laptop. Most of the rest had been provided for us, pre-packed into the bottom of our prepared bags. It didn't leave much space for personal items and I was barely able to fit in the rest of my things, by the end my bag was nearly thirty pounds. I could already feel the aching in my shoulders, I scowled at the thought.

Once everybody was packed and ready, we piled into the rental van headed out. My mom and Gobber took the passenger and driver seat while Gothi and Fishlegs took the middle row and I sat at the very back.

"Make sure to tuck in back there," Gobber called out to me from the front. "We still have two more to get on the way there, so we'll be at full capacity."

"Okay," I said, making sure to scooch all the way to the last seat in the row before buckling myself in.

"Who are we getting?" Fishlegs asked, clutching onto a large camera that hung from his neck.

The van's engine rumbled to life and we began pulling out of the hostel parking lot. "We're getting the herpetologist and the entomologist, they wanted to do a little sightseeing before heading out so they arrived a week early," he yelled with his head tilted upwards. The combination of the engine, the rough ground, and the wind whipping past the open windows made quite the racket as we drove along. "They're staying at a hotel nearby."

"You should get along, they've also recently graduated," my mom called out, she looked at Fishlegs as she spoke but I knew it was mostly meant for me. "They came straight over after finishing at ETH Zurich, they're very passionate about their work."

"They went together? Do they know each other?" Fishlegs called back.

"Brother and sister!"

I peered out the window at the hotel as we began pulling up to it. Standing by the entrance, bags in hand, were what I could only assume to be the herpetologist and the entomologist. Despite being a man and a woman, they were very similar in appearance. They were both lanky with long, dirty blonde hair. Her hair had been done into braids while his was in dreadlocks. Gobber honked the horn to get their attention and they both grinned at the sight of us and jogged over, opening the sliding door and squishing in next to me.

My mom twisted around in her seat so she could face them. "Ruffnut, Tuffnut, it's great to see you here, this is our team so far," she said looking around the van. "I'm Valka, this is Gobber driving, Gothi, Fishlegs, and that's my son Hiccup sitting next to you."

"Sweet," the brother said nodding. "I'm Tuffnut, and this is my sis."

"Ruffnut," the sister finished for him.

"The others are waiting for us at the other airport," Gobber called out as he started the engine again. "We can do full introductions later, no time to waste." The van pulled back out onto the road and we began driving out of the city centre. The closest airport to the highlands was a small local airport in a town with no more than a few thousand people. Flying by helicopter was expensive, so Gobber opted to drive to the closest airport possible.

As we drove down the long country road I pulled out my journal again, taking a quick glance around the van to make sure nobody had noticed. Fishlegs had begun taking photographs out at the landscapes as we passed them, Gothi had her nose buried in a book, and the twins chatted amongst themselves as they gazed out the window.

Although the ride was rough and loud, I still managed to get a little writing in, and more importantly, some sleep along the way. By the time I had awoken, we were already in the town, the first thing I saw as I opened my eyes were the clay houses as we passed them.

I lifted my head and looked around the van, Gobber drove along humming to himself, and with the exception of Gothi, who was reading, all the others had also fallen asleep. "How much longer?" I asked groggily.

Gobber looked at me through the rearview mirror. "Good timing, we'll reach the airport real soon, you can see it ahead there," he said pointing out the window.

I poked my head out and looked on, it really was quite small. The airport only consisted of a one-story building, a small metal airplane shelter with a garage door, and two dirt runways. As we pulled into the small parking area out by the front of the airport, a bulky man with dark hair stepped out and waved at us. Everyone began to stir as soon as the van came to a halt. Gothi slid open the door and stepped out, using a hand to wave away the clouds of dust from her face.

My mom opened and rubbed at her eyes as the man approached, leaning his arms on the edge of her window. "It's been a long time Valka," he said smiling at her.

Her face lit up when she realized who it was. "Eret!" she opened up the door and climbed out of the van, then turned to me and gestured for me to approach. "I have someone for you to meet."

I walked towards them cautiously. The unfamiliar man was large, tall, and buff with a well-defined chin. My mom put a hand on my shoulder and pulled me in closer. "This is my son, Hiccup, this is his first expedition."

Eret chuckled. "Quite the trip for your first time," he said, putting a hand out towards me. "I'm Eret, your mother here took me on my first expedition as well, in the Antarctic."

I shook his hand. "Yeah, I remember that one, saw the pictures of it."

Gobber got out, slamming the door behind him and walking around the front of the van and over to where we were. "Where are the others? Are they here yet?" he asked looking around.

Eret nodded. "The climatologist is inside, she didn't like the heat."

"That's a little ironic isn't it?" I said with a chuckle.

"And the expedition leader?"

"Arguing with the helicopter pilot, seems he doesn't have enough space for all ten of us. Wants us to take two trips," he explained with an amused sigh.

Gobber groaned, rubbing his forehead. "Oh boy, more setbacks, exactly what I needed," he grumbled under his breath.

"Well let's talk to him, maybe we can work something out," my mom said as she walked towards the airport doors, gesturing for the rest of us to follow.

Eret and Gobber went to the back of the van and gathered up the tents and equipment. Everybody else grabbed their bags and shuffled inside the building. It was cramped and musty inside, no air conditioning so it wasn't much cooler than outside, though it was nice to get out of the sun. There were only a few worn-out chairs scattered across the room and a small front desk area with no receptionist. "Charming," I said glancing to Fishlegs, who gave a small laugh in response.

A pretty, young woman, who I could only assume was the climatologist, stood from her seat as we entered. She was drenched in sweat, dark hair clinging to her face and neck, eyes darting around the group, probably trying to guess who was in charge. "You must be Heather," my mother said flashing a smile. "It's nice to meet you."

Heather returned the smile. "Valka right? I really appreciate the opportunity," she said before turning to scan the rest of us with eager eyes. "I'm Heather, I'm working on getting my doctorate in climatology, specializing in micro-climates."

Fishlegs was the first to react, which surprised me since he seemed like the shy type. "Fishlegs, recently got my doctorate in geology, hoping to learn more about unusual geological formations like these sinkholes." He lifted the camera in his hands up slightly. "I'm also the acting photographer."

"I'm Ruffnut, the idiot over there is my brother Tuffnut-" she began.

"I'm the entomologist, basically bugs and shit for the losers who don't know," Tuffnut interjected, arms crossed and a smug look on his face as he spoke.

Ruffnut rolled her eyes at her brother. "And I'm the herpetologist, reptiles and amphibians. So, you know, the things that eat his bugs for dinner." Tuffnut glared then elbowed his sister in the rib.

"I'm sure you all know who I am," my mom chimed in. "Ecologist and general zoologist," she turned towards Gothi. "This wonderful lady here is Gothi, she doesn't talk a lot but she's very smart I assure you. Gothi is our botanist and mycologist."

"I'm Gobber," Gobber said waving a hand. "I'm also a general zoologist, and I'm the technician for this expedition, so if you have any questions about the equipment, I'm the one to ask. I've also been dabbling a little in taxonomy, so let's hope that comes in handy everybody."

Eret gave a charming smile and nod to the group. "I'm Eret, I specialize in mammalogy, and I'm a pretty good trapper if I do say so myself. Looking forward to getting to know everyone along the way."

Everybody turned to look at me and I felt a sickening feeling in the pit of my stomach, I hated to be the centre of attention. I cleared my throat uneasily. "I'm Hiccup...recently got my ethology doctorate." There was a definite confusion amongst the group, and they began to glance around to one another. "If you don't know, ethology is the study of animal behaviour, specifically as an adaptive trait," I explained almost like I was reading it from a dictionary. A slow nod and resounding silent ahhh went through the group as I spoke.

Then, from in the distance, we could all hear a loud clang like a piece of metal hitting the ground, followed by a faint yell. Eret sighed and turned towards the back. "I think that's my cue," he said heading out of the lobby and down a hallway, two tents tucked under each arm. The rest of us followed after him, I stayed at the back of the group. "The door is over here," he said pointing forward as he walked.

"What is she even saying to him?" my mother asked. "I didn't know she could speak Spanish, not fluently anyway."

"Oh I don't know about speaking it fluently," Eret said as he opened the door and stepped out into back where the runways were, "but she's sure has been speaking it to him."

"She? Who are you talking about?" I asked, looking back and forth between them as we walked.

My mom glanced back at me. "The expedition leader, who else?" she replied before following Eret through the doors.

"I thought the expedition leader was a man," I said as a walked out behind the others and stepped over beside my mother.

She shook her head with furrowed brows. "I never said she was a man."

There was another loud clang as a wrench hit the ground, it rattled for a moment before settling in the dirt of the runway. "You son of a half-troll, rat-eating, munge bucket!" A female voice rang through the air, intermixed with Spanish words that I didn't understand. My head jerked up at the sound. There I saw her.


	2. Chapter 2: Jungle

Chapter 2: Jungle

"_When they described her as a survival expert I had expected an old hulking man, with a thick beard and a scarred up face. Instead, she was a young woman, large blue eyes, and long blonde hair. Even in her dirty, sweat-soaked clothing, matted hair done into a loose braid, I had to admit she was gorgeous. When we found her she had already…"_

There was a bang as the door flung open and it gave me a start. I quickly stood up from the floor and rushed over to see who it was. Gobber stumbled inside, two large bags full of groceries in each arm, using his good leg to hold the door open for himself. He looked over at me and seemed surprised to see me there. "What are you doing down here? Shouldn't you be upstairs packing?" he asked as I grabbed the door for him.

"Uh…" I stared at him blankly. Gobber cocked an eyebrow at me and I cleared my throat. "I, I was."

Gobber turned towards me. "_Was? _Do you know what your parents will say if they find out you've been slacking off? They won't be happy, that's for sure."

I took one of the bags from him, his prosthetic hand seemed to be having trouble holding it. "I'll get it done, I was only taking a break."

He narrowed his eyes at me. "You do realize the flight is in three days right?"

"I know," I said as we continued towards the kitchen. "It won't take me long, I'm not bringing much with me."

Gobber dumped his bags down onto the kitchen island and moved towards the fridge, opening it up and looking inside. "Sheesh, he wasn't kidding, you really don't keep a lot in here. Good thing I went shopping first." He looked over at me. "It's not always like this is it?"

I shook my head. "No, there's usually a little more than that. You know, they're both pretty busy with work so we order in most of the time."

"I've told him a thousand times that he should retire, it's not like he needs the money," Gobber grumbled to himself. "Your father is as stubborn as they come."

I chuckled. "Tell me about it."

"Where's your phone by the way? Your mum has been calling you," he said as he began shuffling items out of the bags and onto the countertop.

I patted down the pockets on my pants and shrugged. "I guess I left it upstairs."

Gobber sighed. "Well, she called me anyway, said she would be getting back later than expected. Apparently work asked her to stay a little longer."

"Stay?" I asked. "It won't affect us leaving will it?"

He shook his head. "Oh, I wouldn't think so." Gobber began humming to himself as he peeled potatoes over the sink.

"I'll be upstairs packing," I said before quickly returning to the living room, snatching up the book, and rushing up the stairs towards my bedroom. I stumbled over the items scattered about the floor and sat down at the foot of my bed. I flipped back to my place and my eyes found their way to where I had left off.

"_When we found her she had already given the pilot quite a talking to, though I didn't understand at first what had happened, I didn't speak Spanish in the least. All I knew was that he was terrified and she was angry, that was easy to tell. The pilot was pressed up against the side of the helicopter and her face was flushed and crunched up. The former might've been due to the heat though…"_

* * *

"What's going on?" Gobber asked approaching. He turned towards the pilot, who was visibly distressed and exchanged a few words with him in Spanish. "Ella no va a lastimarte, ella no va a lastimarte," he kept repeating while shaking his hands.

Astrid crossed her arms and rolled her eyes. "Oh please, he's fine. What am I going to do? I'm two-thirds his size."

"He said something about a problem with the seating arrangement?" Gobber asked, turning towards her. "Not being able to fit all of us?"

"He says that the helicopter can't accommodate ten people, so we'll have to make two trips of five each," she huffed shaking her head angrily. "Not only that but he can't take all the equipment and rations either, so that'll be a third trip to do the airdrop. So, despite knowing from the beginning that we have ten people and a bunch of equipment he neglected to mention any of this until now. Of course, he gets paid by the hour so I'm sure this is of no consequence to him!" her voice began to rise in volume, and the pilot jumped back slightly, clearly rattled.

"Alright, alright," my mom said walking over. "There's nothing we can do about it now, if we have to do it in two trips then that's how we'll have to do it."

Gobber shuffled over to the helicopter and peered inside through the window. "Uh, how exactly are we going to take five people plus the pilot in a helicopter with only four seats?"

"Oh, I asked him the same question," Astrid said, an irritated look on her face. "So he pointed out to me that there's space on the floor."

Gobber looked back in the helicopter, then towards Astrid. "Hm, yeah that might be a problem."

"...So what does that mean?" Fishlegs asked looking around. "Are we going to have to take four trips? Five trips?"

Eret shook his head. "No, no, we can't do it in four trips. It takes an hour and a half to go one-way if we did that it would take us almost eleven hours to get out there. Two people can stand, there are doors so it'll be fine."

"Yeah," Gobber said in agreement. "If we do it in four trips, we'll be an entire day off schedule, and we're already behind. Eret is right, it won't hurt for a couple of us to stand."

The twins grinned to each other and high-fived. "Sweet, dibs on being the ones who get to stand!" they both called out.

Fishlegs looked around the group, completely aghast. "Wait, are we seriously considering this? What if we get in a crash? What then?"

"I don't see any seatbelts," Ruffnut said, taking a peek into the helicopter. "So chances are you'd die in a crash either way."

My mother put a hand on Fishlegs' shoulder. "Don't worry, I'm sure he's an excellent pilot, nothing's going to happen." He nodded reluctantly.

"Alright, well, we still need to decide who's going on the first trip, and who's going on the second," Gobber said looking around. "Whoever goes first will have to wait around on the plateau for three hours until we can head out. Any volunteers?"

"I'll go with the first group, you go with the second," my mom said to Gobber. "Astrid, you should come with me, you can survey the area before we head out." Astrid nodded, shoving past the pilot as she walked over to the helicopter door. "Heather, dear," she called out, motioning for her to come closer. "You should also come with, you can test the climate and weather on the top to compare it to the sinkhole later. You have your portable weather station don't you?"

"Oh! Yes!" she said rushing away for a moment before returning with a large metal case and a strange looking tripod. As she struggled to climb in the helicopter, Astrid reached out to help, taking the tripod from her with one hand and yanking her inside with the other. "Thank you."

"No problem, I'm Astrid by the way."

"Heather."

"Fishlegs?" my mom called, and he reluctantly shuffled forward. "You should take some rock samples on the plateau before we head into the sinkhole." Fishlegs was visibly distressed, his face showed complete and utter dread. "Don't worry, nothing is going to happen on the helicopter, we've got perfect clear skies for flying," she said gesturing upwards.

"Listen, I'm going to stand so you can take one of the seats, okay?" Astrid said as she stood leaning against the doorway of the helicopter. Fishlegs nodded reluctantly and shakily climbed up into the back with Astrid's help. "They were just teasing you," she said as she helped him, "I've been on many helicopter rides, I'm still here aren't I?"

My mom looked around the group until her eyes settled on me. "Hiccup, you should come too," she said, and I paused to let her give a reason, but she never did. I suddenly felt embarrassed, like the kid who brought his mom on the field trip with him. She was trying to keep me by her side, was she worried about me? I was a grown man, only a few years away from turning thirty. I didn't say that, of course, instead I gave a nod and climbed into the helicopter with the others. Making a fuss about it would do more against my point than for.

Once inside, I looked around the small space where we would be crammed for over an hour. Fishlegs had tucked himself in the smallest corner, clutching his things tightly in his lap. Astrid and Heather stood together at the far side, chatting quietly with one another.

Astrid's eyes drew up towards mine and she gestured towards the seat next to Fishlegs. "You can take one of the seats if you want," she offered.

I shook my head and cleared my throat. "No, I can stand."

My mom climbed up behind me, shuffling around me as she looked around the inside. The pilot was still outside, probably nervous to enter while Astrid was there. "Is everyone ready? she asked, and we all nodded. "Have you decided who's sitting and who's standing?"

"I'll stand, mom."

"So it's you and Astrid standing then?" she asked glancing between us.

"Yeah, you go ahead and sit Mrs. Haddock," Astrid said.

Heather sat down next to Fishlegs in the back and my mom sat in the cockpit next to the driver's seat. As the pilot climbed up into the helicopter, I shuffled over to the other side and stood next to Astrid. I started to feel nervous, and I wasn't completely sure why. The pilot got into his seat and started up the engine, causing everything to vibrate softly as the blades began to spin. I gripped the handle by the window tightly to keep myself from stumbling.

Fishlegs let out a high-pitched squeal and he squeezed his bag even tighter in his arms. Heather reached out and touched his shoulder. "It's okay," she said over the loud rumbling, "that's the engine starting."

He looked over at her, his face was drained of all it's colour. "I can't," he said breathlessly.

"You'll be fine," she insisted. "You can hold onto my hand if you'd like," she offered, holding out an open palm towards him. Fishlegs nodded, and slowly took her hand into his, squeezing it.

I peered out of the window as we began to lift up in the air. If I wasn't looking out, I might not have even noticed that we had moved from the ground, the experience of going up in the air was much more visual than sensational. It was so smooth, exactly how I imagined hovering to feel. Nothing like being in an airplane. From the corner of my eye, I noticed Astrid leaning up against the window next to me. She smiled softly as she looked out over the endless jungle. "It's so big," I said.

Astrid turned to look at me. "What?" she asked.

"It's so big!" I repeated, louder this time.

"That's one way to put it."

My eyes trailed back towards the vastness of the jungle below us as we began flying over it all, then bounced back to her. I couldn't help but think she didn't look like a survival expert, she looked much more like an actress playing a survival expert. She was pretty, _very pretty_, unrealistically pretty, to the point where it made me irrationally nervous. "It's, uh, it's my first time," I said dumbly, unsure what to say.

Astrid looked at me. "First time in a helicopter?"

"No, well, yes. I actually meant my first time travelling away from home, but I guess it's also my first helicopter ride too."

"...Really?"

I suddenly started feeling self-conscious. Why did I say that? Was I trying to make myself look like a complete loser? "Uh...yes?"

"Well you've been places close to home though right?"

I nodded. "Oh yeah, of course. I've been to a lot of different cities in my province."

"_Province? _I was thinking more like Seattle, is this the first time you've left your home country?" Astrid looked me up and down. "I mean you were probably busy with school. How old are you? Twenty?"

I shrunk slightly. "I'm twenty-seven."

"Oh."

"I mean, you were still kind of right though...I was in school getting my doctorate, I graduated a month ago." I smiled sheepishly. "I take it you've done a lot of travelling?"

She nodded "I've done my share, yeah, expedition leaders tend to move around a lot."

"Do you have to go to school to do what you do?" I asked. "I mean, there aren't schools for hiking is there?"

"No, but there are for rock-climbing, that's where I started out."

"Rock-climbing?"

"Yeah, when I'm not guiding scientists around Venezuela, I'm leading climbing expeditions. I think that's why I was hired, your mom needed someone with climbing experience to help you in and out of the sinkholes."

"Do you like leading climbing expeditions?"

She smiled to herself. "It's a pretty amazing job. Though it's always nice to get the odd job like this, especially in places with warmer climates."

"Where are you normally? The Rockies?"

"Nepal. Everest."

"Wow, that's...far."

Astrid chuckled to herself. "Tell me about it, I've still got jet lag, and if there's such thing as climate jet lag, I've got that too," she said wiping the sweat from behind her neck. "I'm disgusting right now."

"No, you're…" I cleared my throat. "You're not disgusting, whatever the opposite of disgusting is, that's what you are. Uh, I mean, you're-" I laughed awkwardly. "That was meant to sound like a compliment."

She smiled, lips pressed as she held back laughter. "Don't worry, I could tell."

"There! You can sort of see it!" my mom called out. "Hiccup, come here and have a look," she said gesturing for me to move towards the front. I carefully made my way over, making sure that I didn't move too quickly as to not rock the helicopter. "See it's that mountain in the distance," she said pointing out the front window.

It was small from so far away, but I could see it. A wide, flat-topped mountain with rocky sides and plenty of green on the top. It was a unique shape to be certain, and that unique shape was the exact reason the sinkholes were even able to exist in the first place. As we neared, I watched as the piles of wispy clouds split and glided around the mountain, I looked back towards Fishlegs to see if he wanted to take a picture, but he looked nauseated and utterly terrified. Instead, I pulled out my journal, flipped to the next empty page and began sketching what I could see. The mountain, the jungle, the clouds as they passed. The mountain only looked more beautiful the closer we got. I could really see the details, all the cracks and crevices along the walls and the jungle as it spilled over the cliff sides. Drawing really made the ride feel shorter than it actually was.

"We're coming in now," my mother called to the back as the helicopter began flying over the top. The sinkholes were easy to see as we soared over the plateau, some were very small, similar to a well, others were so wide they could fit entire apartment buildings inside. The true scale didn't quite set in until we began slowly lowering down, the jungle atop the flat was so vast and thick my eyes became lost in it all. We could hear the sounds of plants getting whipped around by the strong winds that the helicopter blades made and there was a soft crunch as it landed onto the jungle floor.

I looked back to Heather and Fishlegs, the latter of which had began shakily climbing out of his seat. Astrid went first, grabbing her bag, giving the door a hard yank open, and leaping out onto the soft green earth outside. The propeller blades kept on turning, the sound and movement made a storm around us as we climbed out one by one. I clutched my journal close to my chest as I walked, worried that the wind would suck it up and blow it away. Fishlegs practically crawled away from the helicopter despite both my mother and Astrid telling him that the blades could not hit him. Once we had all made it a few meters away, the pilot pulled up and began turning back around to get the others. Once he was overhead, the peace and silence of the jungle took over rather abruptly.

"That was something," Heather said as she smoothed out her wind-blown hair.

My mom let out a breath and looked around at all the greenery, she seemed more at home than I had ever seen her. "Welcome to Cerro Sarisariñama," she said, "I'll give you all a moment to collect yourselves but we do have a few things to do before the others arrive."

Astrid wasted no time, she tightened the straps on her backpack in one quick motion and set out to survey the area. With no more than an; "I'll be back!" yelled over her shoulder.

Fishlegs climbed to his feet, resting his hands on his knees as he caught his breath, wheezing and coughing. "Are you sure I can't hike back after we finish? I don't mind getting home a week late."

My mom laughed. "Well you might mind dying of exposure. This is a jungle Fishlegs, it's not something so easy to walk through. Not to mention that you'd run out of food before you even made it halfway."

"Just think about where you are," Heather said smiling as she looked around. "Only a handful of living people have been able to see this place for themselves, isn't that worth the trip out?" she asked him.

"I...suppose…" he replied through heavy breaths.

"Heather's right," my mother said. "We're very lucky to have been allowed in here, this is a place of both scientific, ecological, and cultural significance like nowhere else. It was quite a feat getting permission to venture out here."

"Cultural significance?" Heather asked. "Did people use to live all the way out here?"

She nodded. "The Ye'kuana tribe had legends about this place, though most of their ancestors don't live in the jungle anymore. In Brazil and Venezuela mainly," she explained. "Actually the most well known of their legends was where the name of this mountain came from."

"Really? What legend is that?"

"It's the tale of an evil spirit said to find and eat lost humans, the 'sari sari' part is their interpretation of the sound of said spirit eating human flesh."

I turned to look over at Fishlegs who had stopped to stare horrorstruck up at my mother. "Uh, I don't think you guys are helping right now."

My mom smiled and shook a hand towards Fishlegs. "Don't worry Fishlegs, these are only stories, folklore. I can't believe I have to say this, but there's no such thing as evil human-eating spirits okay?"

Fishlegs let out a nervous, high-pitched breath. "Uh-huh, yeah, okay."

"That's enough stories though, how about you two get started? It's better to rest after you've finished, once the others arrive we'll be heading out immediately, no time to lose," she said looking over to Heather and Fishlegs, who both nodded in response.

I turned back to her once they had both grabbed their things and headed out to do their tests. "Is there anything you want me to do?" I asked, though I suspected she didn't. Despite my age, my mother liked to keep me close to her.

"I don't think so dear," she replied, touching a hand to her cheek in thought. "How about you stay here in case anyone comes back? I have to go speak with Astrid, and there aren't exactly many landmarks out here," she said looking around. "When Fishlegs and Heather return, tell them to have a rest."

"Sure." My mom smiled and kissed me on the side of my head before hiking off in the direction that Astrid had gone. I watched until her figure disappeared into the jungle. I glanced around at all the green around me, it was thicker than I had imagined. Most of the brush, even here in the clearing, came up at least past my knees if not all the way to my stomach. I trudged through it a few metres until I managed my way to the edge of the plateau, a steep rocky cliffside. To call it amazing would be an understatement, it was like standing at the edge of the world and looking out. The sheer endlessness of it all was like nothing I could've ever imagined. Breathless, I quickly turned and began back to where I had started, I knew if I stood there too long I would get vertigo. Once I returned to the flattened patch of jungle where we had landed, I found myself a comfortable place to sit and pulled out my journal once more. Flipping it open to the next empty page, I put my pen to paper and began writing.

It felt like no time at all had passed when I heard the sounds of someone approaching, rustling through the thick brush as they got closer. I looked up to find Fishlegs peering down at me, sweat beaded on his forehead and face red from the heat. "I thought I was lost, I didn't see you behind all the grass," he said looking around. "Then I saw the plants blown and flattened by the helicopter...what are you doing on the ground?"

"You're back already?" I asked.

"Already?" He looked down at his watch. "It's been over an hour since we landed, almost two actually."

"Really? Time flies when you're having fun I guess," I said shrugging.

His eyes drifted down towards the book in my hands. "What are you writing?"

I snapped the journal shut. "Nothing, notes, it's good to keep track of events for later research."

Fishlegs nodded as he grabbed a rag from his cargo shorts and used it to wipe the sweat from the back of his neck. "None of the others came back yet?" he asked looking around. "You think they're alright?"

"I'm sure they can take care of themselves."

"She's nice isn't she?"

I held back a smile, zipping up my journal and packing it back away into my bag. "Oh, yeah, I would say so."

"I thought maybe she wouldn't like me, most girls don't. You know what that's like right?"

"Uh, yeah," I said cocking an eyebrow at him.

"But she wasn't mean about it, the whole afraid of flying thing I mean. She was actually pretty nice, sitting right next to me, making me feel better about it. Honestly, I probably would've puked if not for her."

I looked over at him. "Who are we talking about?"

Fishlegs furrowed his brows. "Heather? The climatologist?"

"Oh."

"Why? Who did you think we were talking about?"

I stood up. "No, no, I thought you meant her, uh, Heather."

"What about me?" a voice called out from the jungle. We could hear the sounds of someone plodding towards us through the thick grass and vines that covered the ground. Heather appeared then, covered in sweat with her clunky metal briefcase in one hand and that strange tripod tucked under the other arm.

I could see the colour drain from Fishlegs' face again, though it was easy to tell by her demeanour that she had only heard her name, nothing else. "Oh, uh, we were wondering when you'd get back, it's already been an hour," I said quickly before Fishlegs could get out a word. He didn't seem like the type to be good at lying.

"Yes," he agreed enthusiastically. "B-because you took so long."

"Are Valka and Astrid back yet?"

"No, but they should be soon, it won't be much longer until the others arrive in the helicopter," I said looking around. "Did you guys find anything of interest?"

Heather shrugged. "I don't know if 'find' is the right word, I did some tests and compared my data to the climate data already on record for the region. Nothing of note, the real analysis comes in once we're in the sinkhole. This information is only for comparison purposes." She turned to Fishlegs. "What about you Fishlegs?"

"Me? Oh, uh, well I took some rock samples with me. I won't be able to make any conclusions until I can to return to my full lab. Most geology research is done after the expedition ends. I am excited to take a look in the sinkholes, I've read a lot of research about how and why they formed in the first place."

"Oh? That sounds interesting, what do they say caused them to form?"

Fishlegs smiled. "One of the most prevalent theories is that water collected beneath the mountain, eroding caves beneath the surface of the plateau. They say the ground above these caves eventually collapsed in, creating the sinkholes," he explained.

"How did water get beneath the mountain?" I asked.

"Rainfall created underground rivers is the theory, though previous expeditions have yet to find clear evidence of these supposed rivers. Maybe we'll be able to find proof of their existence, or disprove it, who knows."

The crunching of approaching footsteps caught our attention. We all turned to find Astrid and my mom walking toward us, they smiled, chatting with one another as they came closer. "Good, you're all here," my mom said looking over us. "The helicopter should be here soon, make sure you're all prepared to head out."

"So we're going that way?" Heather asked, pointing in the direction that they had arrived from.

Astrid nodded. "We cleared a short path and I checked the GPS, it should take maybe a couple of days best case scenario, but be prepared to be hiking for a week if the terrain is particularly unforgiving."

"Yes, so make sure to keep track of your rations, everyone," my mother added. "We won't be getting any more until we reach the sinkhole, that's where they'll be air-dropping our extra supplies and equipment."

"How long will our current rations last?" Fishlegs asked.

"If we're careful, they should last eight to ten days, more than enough to get us to the sinkholes," Astrid said. "So pay attention to-"

"Hey!" Heather called out. "There's the others!"

Everyone turned around to see the Helicopter returning, it was far away enough that it looked like an insect in the vast cloudless sky. Fishlegs fumbled to put his glasses on so he could have a look at it, even then he said it only looked like a speck. My mother rounded us up a few metres from the flattened patch of grass, not wanting to block them from landing properly. The sound of the helicopter blades soon drowned out the quiet of the jungle, the wind whipping and blowing around all the plants as they approached the ground.

The twins climbed out first, with huge goofy grins across their faces. Eret followed close behind, and Gobber helped Gothi climb down and walk over to where we were standing. The helicopter soon lifted back off the ground and flew into the distance, leaving us all there in the thick of it.

My mom and Gobber spoke briefly, while the others who had just arrived gathered themselves. Not much time was wasted though, it felt like only a few minutes before we were already on our way, trudging through the jungle that only seemed to get thicker and thicker the further we went. It was exhausting to say the least, nothing at all like what I had known to be hiking back home. By the time we had finished for the day, my limbs were shaky and numb, and I felt like I could collapse at any moment. To make matters worse, when it came time to stop for the night there was still plenty of work to be done setting up camp. Turns out, setting up camp in a rainforest is significantly more complicated than setting up camp in a regular forest.

Heather and the twins were appointed to setting up all the tents for everyone, something that was quite important for keeping us dry and sheltered in all the wet of the jungle. Heather seemed less than impressed with being assigned to work with Ruffnut and Tuffnut, though she said nothing of it and did as she was told. Eret had the much more difficult job of preparing a dry place for the fire to be made, this involved building a rock barrier and suspending a tarp overtop, low enough to keep out the rain, but high enough to let the smoke vent out. He seemed utterly unconcerned by this, like he had done it dozens of times already. Gobber had brought with him a shiny new set of camping cookware, and he was set to gather up everyone's rations and have them cooked once the fire was going. Astrid had collected a small amount of dry tinder during the hike that he was to use to start the fire.

My mother had assigned me to help her collect fresh water from the river to be boiled and sanitized, but Fishlegs had begged her to let him do it instead. He had been tasked with accompanying Astrid to gather more firewood, a job that would involve venturing off quite far from camp, and that absolutely terrified him.

"It's too dark, what if we get lost?"

"Fishlegs, it'll be fine, Astrid will be with you the whole time," my mother soothed.

This did nothing to calm his jittery nerves. "I can't, what if there's a leopard or a tiger or something? What if it tries to eat us?"

"Tigers don't live in South America," I pointed out.

"Whatever, a large feline okay? I don't care what kind, just that I don't get eaten by one!"

Astrid sighed and crossed her arms. "You're not going to get eaten, don't be dramatic."

"Uh-huh, then what's _that _for?" he asked, pointing to the rifle that hung around Astrid's torso. "If not for a leopard then what?"

"There aren't leopards in South America either, how do you not know this?" I asked. "You're on a nature expedition in Venezuela, didn't you study up on the environment?"

"I'm a geologist, I came here to study geology, not animals."

Astrud turned to my mother, arms still crossed. "_This _is the guy you got from _Australia_?"

She sighed. "He studied internationally."

"It's fine," I said. "I'll help Astrid, Fishlegs can go get water with you."

My mother seemed almost upset by this. "Hiccup, you don't have to do that."

"It's fine," I repeated. "I don't mind."

Though I wasn't exactly thrilled to be back hiking through the jungle, now in much poorer lighting, I was glad to have some time away from my mother. I could see her trying to keep me close all the time, I wondered if any of the others noticed it too.

"Boy scouts did not prepare me for this," I groaned, rubbing my legs as we stopped to gather a few dry logs we had found. "Please say I'll get used to this."

"You'll get used to this."

I narrowed my eyes at her. "Are you just saying that?"

She shrugged. "Alright, next time I won't listen to you."

I chuckled lightly. "You must be used to this by now, you hardly look tired at all."

"I'm tired too," she said, "the difference is I don't complain about it as much as you." Astrid looked over at me with a steely gaze, and I completely froze. I felt like a child being scolded by my teacher, but the edge of her mouth quirked upwards slightly as she held back a smile.

I couldn't help but grin. "That's not funny."

"That's because you couldn't see your own face," she said with a chuckle, passing me a few branches to hold. "Don't worry, everybody is the same on their first trip. You'd be surprised how many tourists think they can brave Everest with no experience because they hired a guide."

"What's it like?"

"Everest?" I nodded. "Cold."

"I'm serious."

"So am I," she said tucking a few more branches under her arm before heading further into the jungle. "It's not something where a description could ever encompass what it's like to really be up there. You'll have to go and see it for yourself if you want to know."

"It's that hard to describe?"

"Try describing the colour blue to someone, then get back to me."

I snickered. "_Deep_." Astrid elbowed me, but smiled. "So...would you-"

"Wait." Astrid's hand darted to the rifle that hung on her side, letting the branches fall to the ground. Her eyes flashed around in the dark, looking for something. I couldn't see what she did, only the brush and trees around us, nothing else. She pulled the rifle up, grasping it with both hands and aiming it forwards.

"What's wrong?" I whispered.

"A cougar," she replied, her tone louder and firmer than I would've expected her to use.

It was then that I noticed the shiny yellow eyes glinting at us from the darkness, and I felt shivers up my spine. "I thought you said we wouldn't get eaten?" I whispered back anxiously. "What happened to 'don't be dramatic?'"

"We're not getting eaten, if it comes at us I'll shoot it," she replied. "And if you're going to talk, don't use such a frightened tone. They can hear that you're scared in your voice." The eyes slowly disappeared as the cougar slunk back into the jungle. Astrid lowered her rifle and turned back to me. "If you see one of those, don't run. Back away slowly and talk in a strong tone, if you run they'll chase you, and you won't outrun a cougar."

I nodded shakily. "Noted."

"Don't worry, cougars aren't in the business of killing humans. They'll only attack you if they think you're prey, so don't act like prey." I nodded again. "This should be enough," she said, bending over to gather the branches she had dropped. "Let's head back, there isn't much light left."

"You don't have to tell me twice," I said, quickly turning back to where we had come from.

The next day proved to be even more difficult than the last, but on the third day somehow it became easier. My body had adjusted, if only a little, to the rough terrain and long hours of hiking. The heat and humidity, on the other hand, I never got used to. The closest I had ever been to the equator previous to this was my high school summer trip to Toulouse, France. The two weren't even comparable. By the fourth day, everyone was getting cranky. We were all hot, stinky, and completely exhausted.

"Are we seriously not there yet?" Tuffnut groaned, hiking his backpack a little higher up. "We better not have to camp another night, I'm on the last side of my last pair of underwear."

"Last side?" Heather asked eyeing him. "What's that supposed to mean?"

Eret shook his head. "You don't want to know, trust me."

"We'll be there soon enough," Astrid said, eyes glued to the compass in her hand, her legs weaving through the brush and broken branches with ease.

Ruffnut groaned. "You said that half an hour ago! We're lost, admit it."

Astrid turned around to glare at her. "First of all, it's only been four days. I told you when we left that the hike could take up to a week, you should feel lucky that the terrain hasn't forced us off our path. Secondly, we're _not _lost, if you kept up with my pace we'd have arrived already."

"Me?" Ruffnut choked, completely aghast. "If you're going to complain about anybody's speed it should be tubby over there," she said pointing to the back where Fishlegs was. "He's been a straggler from the start."

"Hey!" Fishlegs cried out.

"Okay, there's no need to point fingers guys," I said calmly.

Eret shrugged. "I mean it's a fair point, he has been slowing the group down. Which is kind of surprising considering one of us is an old woman. No offence," he said turning to Gothi.

"Okay, okay," my mother said calmly, moving her palms downward. "We're all here as a team, there's no point in getting angry. Astrid said we would arrive by tonight, so we should all have fresh clothing and warm food very soon."

"Maybe we should split into groups, anyone who can keep up with Astrid could go ahead and set up camp," Gobber suggested. "That way anyone who has a slower pace won't feel pressured to hike faster than they can."

"Yes!" Tuffnut said enthusiastically.

My mom frowned. "What? We can't do that, how will the second group find their way? Astrid is our only guide."

"She can tie flags along the way, the second group will follow that," Eret suggested. "That's how deep-forest hunters keep track of where they've been."

Heather frowned. "Should we really be splitting up right now? Astrid said we'd be there soon, there's no point in going to all this trouble so a few of us can arrive _slightly_ earlier." Gothi pointed to Heather and nodded in agreement.

"Okay, so we'll continue on together," Gobber said, looking around for approval.

"Hold on, you guys can't decide that for everyone else," Tuffnut said clearly annoyed as he looked around at everyone.

"Yes he can, he's in charge," Fishlegs argued.

Eret shook his head. "Actually, Valka's in charge here."

"Uh, guys," I began, pointing to where Astrid was, or more specifically, where she had been.

"It doesn't matter, we should be taking a vote on this, that's the only fair way," Tuffnut interjected.

Ruffnut nodded. "Yeah, raise of hands, who wants to split up?"

Heather crossed her arms and glowered at the twins. "That is not how this works, this isn't a democracy here, Valka is the expedition leader. Do you have any idea how expeditions work?"

"Guys."

"So you're saying you're on the side of dictatorships?" Ruffnut asked. "_Stalin much?_"

Fishlegs groaned. "We're not talking about government systems, this is the same as any business. _Somebody _has to be in charge or everything will go to chaos."

Eret sighed, leaning back onto one of the nearby trees. "Look around, I think we've reached chaos already."

"Guys!" Everyone turned to look at me. "I think we should get going, Astrid's already left." I pointed to where she had been standing, there was a small clearing she had passed through, like an archway made of leaves and vines.

"What?" My mother replied, shocked. "Where did she go?"

"Through there."

Everyone gathered up, and we began filing through one by one. It didn't take long for us to make our way through the brush and out to where Astrid had been while the argument erupted. She stood there, looking out over the gigantic sinkhole, the gentle breeze blowing her braid around. The hole was much wider and deeper than I would've thought, like an entire lake had been drained of all its water. The shape, on the other hand, was almost too perfect, a cylinder with flat vertical sides. At the bottom was more jungle, what looked like twenty stories below us, maybe more.

Astrid turned towards us, having heard us approaching. "We're here."


	3. Chapter 3: Descent

Chapter 3: Descent

"What are you doing?" Gobber asked, peering into my room

I slapped the journal shut and hid it beneath the covers of my bed. "Nothing."

Gobber took a step into the room and shot me a skeptical glower. "What's that you're hiding there?" he asked crossing his arms.

"It's nothing," I repeated. He continued to stare at me, unconvinced. "It's a journal, that's all," I said slipping the book back out to show him, but holding it firmly closed.

He inspected the journal from across the room before looking back up at me. "You're writing in a journal now?"

"Maybe. Why? Can't I?"

Gobber shrugged. "Thought you were a little old for it, that's all."

"I was reading old entries, not writing new ones."

"Yours?"

"Yes, _mine_."

"Are you going to write about the trip?" he asked.

"No, I said they were only old entries, and didn't you say I was too old to have a journal a moment ago?"

"I said I _thought _you were a little old." He paused. "How long have you been at it? I didn't know you liked to keep a journal."

"Is that really important?" I asked with a frown. "I'd like to keep on reading, _alone_?"

Gobber chuckled and raised his hands up in defeat. "Alright, alright, I'll leave you be, but please make sure you get done packing before your parents get back. Your mother will have my head if your room is still like this come dinner time," he said as he looked over the mess of items I had laid out on the floor.

I nodded. "Okay, I will." I watched him as he began shuffling back out of the room. "Gobber," I said suddenly.

He turned towards me. "What is it?"

"You speak Spanish right?"

Gobber eyed me. "Sure do, did your mom tell you that? She speaks a little too, you know."

"What does 'ella no va a lastimarte' mean?"

Gobber furrowed his brows. "So you're trying to learn Spanish? _Now?_ You've got a funny sense of timing, kid."

"Are you going to answer the question or not?"

"Well," he said scratching his chin, "I guess it means 'she will not hurt you' or something along those lines. Though I can't say it's a very useful phrase, wouldn't you rather know how to say 'I'm lost' or 'help me'?"

"Nevermind, forget I asked."

"Are you excited?" he suddenly asked, leaning on my door frame.

"I guess...in an 'I feel like I'm about to puke' kinda way."

He laughed. "I know it can be scary, but don't think of it that way, think of it as an adventure."

"An adventure?" I scoffed.

"Well, it'll be different from what you're used to. And hotter, much hotter."

"I figured, closer to the equator and all."

Gobber moved away from the doorframe. "I should get back to it, but if you want any advice; when in doubt stick by your mom, she's the toughest most worldly lady I've ever met."

"_That's _your advice? Stick to my mom? You know I'm not a little kid anymore right?"

He smiled and nodded, giving the door a light tap as he walked out of the room. "Sure, kiddo."

I waited until I heard Gobber's prosthetic limb clunk against the kitchen tile before walking over to the door, closing and locking it with a click. There was a part of me that desperately wanted to know what would happen, so I climbed back into bed and opened up the journal, flipping to the next page.

"_The sinkhole was much wider and deeper than I would've thought, like an entire lake had been drained of all its water. The shape, on the other hand, was almost too perfect, a cylinder with flat vertical sides. At the bottom was more jungle, what looked like twenty stories below us. The amazement quickly subsided, only to be replaced by terror as we all realized that we would have to scale down into that very pit._

_My mom, Gobber, and Astrid were all unnervingly calm in contrast to our restrained panic. They quietly prepared the rock-climbing equipment for our descent into the sinkhole, unpacking all the ropes and harnesses. As usual, Fishlegs was the one most outwardly terrified, he seemed shocked by how much further down the drop was, and how completely vertical it was. It took him almost an hour to build up the courage to get the harness on."_

* * *

I gripped the rope tightly, trying desperately to remember all the instructions that I had been told before I was strapped into the pulley system. Astrid had told me repeatedly that if I let go I wouldn't fall, but I couldn't help but cling as if my life depended on it. I didn't dare look down as I inched closer and closer towards the bottom, I swear it took five times longer than it should have, my feet constantly reached down, hoping they would find flat ground to rest on.

"You're almost there!" I heard my mom call out, her voice echoed against the rocky walls, making it hard to tell how close or far she was. I could see Heather dangling above me, her feet flat against the side of the cliff as she slowly made her way down.

I nearly jumped out of my skin when my mother's hand came in contact with my back, I'm sure she meant to help me down, but it startled me so bad I thought I would swallow my own tongue. I let my feet shakily land back onto solid ground, my knees knobbing furiously.

"I'm sorry dear, I didn't mean to scare you like that." I shook my head and said nothing. "Why don't you go sit over there while the rest come down?" she suggested, ushering me to sit next to Eret and Gothi on a large flat rock nearby.

"Going down is the worst part," Eret said. "Going back up is always less scary."

"You've done this before?" I asked, my hands tucked under my arms.

He chuckled to himself and shook his head. "Not like this, not quite so steep or high, but I've dabbled in a little rock climbing here and there. I've thought of climbing around Great Rift Valley, I've seen it more times than I can count, never did climb it though."

"Great Rift Valley, that's in Africa right?"

Eret nodded. "I grew up in South Africa, my parents liked to take me on trips to go sightseeing, Great Rift Valley was their favourite."

Ruffnut came stumbling towards us through the brush, a fat brown lizard clutched in her hands. It wriggled and thrashed in her grip, but Ruffnut kept it firmly in place. She stopped in front of us, smiling and holding the lizard up like a child showing her parents. "I've never seen one like this before, and there are probably five more different kinds over there," she said gesturing with her chin. "This place is insane, my bro even found some weird beetle things."

"You two were supposed to find the equipment," Eret said, frowning. "What are you supposed to do with anything you find if we don't have the cages or sample bottles to put them in?"

"Relax, we'll get to it."

"You're going to hold that the whole time?" Eret asked, eyeing the lizard in her hands.

Ruffnut shrugged. "Maybe I am."

"Sis! Sis, you have to see this!" Tuffnut called from off further in the jungle.

A smile spread across Ruffnut's face and she looked over her shoulder. "Hold on, I've got to go see what she found," she said, turning and plodding off to where we couldn't see her anymore.

Eret sighed and moved to get up. "I guess I'll have to go look for it."

"I can do it," I said, surprising even myself.

"Really?" he asked, taken slightly aback.

"It can't be _that _hard to find right? How many boxes with parachutes attached could be down here?"

"You're sure?" I nodded. "You won't get lost?"

I shrugged. "It's pretty echo-y in here, I'll yell if I can't find my way back."

He chuckled. "Alright, I'll keep my ears open."

I stood up and began walking off into the brush. From above it didn't look as thick or as tall as it really was, I had to constantly use both arms to keep leaves and branches from hitting my face. It was a little cooler down in the sinkhole than it was up on the plateau, which I was grateful for. There were insects everywhere, that I was less grateful for, they flew about in thick clouds and crawled over and under my feet as I walked. Searching for the equipment box turned out to be more difficult than I had imagined, the jungle was too thick and too large. Though it felt like I had wandered quite a distance from the others, I could still hear the distant sound of their voices calling to one another.

I stopped for a moment, using a hot hand to wipe sweat from the nape of my neck as I scanned the jungle around brush was so thick I could hardly see much further than a half a metre in front of me. I pushed away some fronds, peering through, repeating this a few times in different directions. Everything looked the same around me. I turned slightly and began making my way forward again, trying to find something, anything that wasn't greenery. I wasn't even certain I had been keeping in a straight line. For all I knew I was making endless circles.

The bottoms of my shoes had become caked in mud and that made walking even more difficult than it already was. I crouched down and peeled away the dried mud with my hands. Letting the dry clumps fall to the ground and leaving brown power all over my fingertips. As I brushed my hands off on my pants, a piece of white fabric caught my eye and I sprung to my feet. It draped over a tree, just enough for me to see it. With long swift strides I walked towards it, reaching up and stroking a hand over the white fabric. A parachute.

"I found it!" I hollered out, hoping the others could hear me as well as I could hear them.

I shuffled through the branches, following the fabric until I found the patch of broken trees and bushes where the equipment box had landed. With a hard yank, I pulled away the parachute, fully uncovering it. It was quite large, made of thick shiny plastic, wrapped up in heavy black straps. I walked around the sides of the crate, looking for where the straps clipped together, undoing them one by one. They were fastened with heavy, metal buckles, each one made a zip sound as is quickly slipped from the box and landed with a soft thud on the jungle floor. Once all the straps were undone, I began circling the box, feeling the edges with my hands, trying to find the opening.

I could hear the approach of their crunching footsteps and echoing voices. "Where are you?" I heard Astrid's voice call out for me.

"Here!" I called back, finally feeling the handles to open the box. I grabbed one in each hand, pulling them opening and flinging the top off. The lid flipped open, slamming against the other side to reveal our equipment and week's supplies inside.

"This way!" I heard her voice again, this time closer, along with the sound of more rustling and footsteps.

My eyes scanned over everything in the box, I could see various types of equipment and traps, and plenty of packaged food and supplies. I suddenly felt very hungry, I had completely forgotten that we hadn't eaten dinner yet. Now that we had our rations and were ready to settle in, we wouldn't have to conserve our food intake and I could eat as large a portion as I wanted. I smiled at the thought of a big warm meal.

The leaves and branches began to part, and Astrid emerged from the jungle. "What are you smiling about?" she asked as she walked closer, looking down into the box.

The others filed into the small clearing one by one, Eret, Gobber, and Valka.

"Just thinking about dinner," I told her.

Astrid smiled, shuffling around to the far corner of the crate. "Well help us lift this thing and we'll be having dinner in no time."

The four of us each grabbed a corner, lifting the box and carrying it back through the brush towards where we had landed. I was glad to have four people instead of two, not necessarily that it would be too heavy for two people, although it was quite heavy. More than weight it was how cumbersome is was to carry it around while our feet dodged roots and our heads dodged low branches.

The twins were still nowhere to be found by the time we made it back. Gothi was still sitting on that flat rock, quietly reading a book. Heather and Fishlegs stood nearby, chatting and laughing with one another.

We dropped the box down with a thump, and my mom looked around at everyone. "They're still not back?" she asked, turning to Gothi. Gothi shook her head. "Well, we'll have to get started without them. "Fishlegs, would you go find them and bring them back here in the meantime?"

"Me? Alone?"

"You won't get lost, there's nowhere to go but in a circle. If you can't find us you can yell for someone."

Heather put a hand up. "I can go with him. I mean, he'll need help carrying all the cages after all. You know, for all those bugs and lizards they found right?"

She nodded. "Right, sounds good, grab some containers and bring them back. It'll be dark soon so we should eat something and get to bed quickly."

They both took what they needed and headed off to find Ruffnut and Tuffnut. The rest of us got to work setting up camp, getting the tents put up, building the fire, and organizing all of the equipment so it would be ready in the morning. By the time everything was done, it was completely dark, only the flickering glow of the fire surrounded us. I held a hot metal dish of potato soup, cradled in a rag to keep my hands from burning. The nights were much colder, but the steam in my face and the gentle sound of the soup bubbling over the fire warmed me.

My eyes wandered to the opposite side of the fire pit, where Astrid sat, eating her soup with a camping spork. I thought about moving closer so I could say something to her, but I didn't. Instead, I finished my food, cleaned my dish, and went to sleep.

The following few days went as I expected, everyone ventured out to observe the area in the sinkhole and gather samples for further research. The twins were especially enthusiastic, catching seventeen new species of various insects, amphibians, and reptiles after only the first two days. Astrid had spent most of her time cutting paths through the jungle so we would be able to travel back and forth between various areas more easily. This turned out to be very helpful, it really didn't take long to walk from one side to the other when we weren't wandering aimlessly. By the end of the week, we had familiarized ourselves quite well with the area.

I myself had come across a few species that seemed to exist both above and below the sinkhole, which had the possibility of being very interesting. I began observing their behaviour, trying to pinpoint differences, if there were any, to what I knew about their above-ground counterparts.

"What are you doing?" I turned to find Astrid standing behind me, a bundle of broken branches tucked under each arm.

I touched a finger to my lips then pointed towards a small anteater scavenging through the fallen leaves and twigs. "I'm observing," I whispered, taking down a few more notes in my journal.

She quietly crouched down next to me, carefully watching the shrew over my shoulder. "What is it?" she whispered in my ear.

"A silky anteater."

"How did it get down here?" she asked.

I looked upwards towards the edges of the sinkhole. "An ancestor probably fell down here and continued living at the bottom, that's why this place is good for my research. Since many animals who fall down here can't get back out, I can see how the same species developed differently in two separate places."

"Is that what ethologists do?"

"It's one of the things they do."

"...Why did you choose ethology?"

I turned away from the silky anteater and towards her. "I guess...I guess I wanted to know more about animals, to understand why they did what they did."

Astrid furrowed her brows. "Don't you mean 'do'?"

"Hey! Hey guys!" A voice called out, echoing through the sinkhole. The anteater's head perked up and it quickly scurried off, climbing into a tree where we could no longer see it. Astrid and I both looked at each other before sanding up to see what all the ruckus was about. "Come over here! I found something!"

"Is that Fishlegs?" she asked, looking off in the direction where his voice was coming from.

I nodded, also staring forward. "Sounds like it to me."

We began making our way over to where he was, shuffling down the narrow clearings that Astrid had spent the past week making. As we moved, I could hear others approaching and more and more voices the closer we got. I pushed through a few low hanging branches until I could see them all there, crowded around something against the wall of the sinkhole. My mom, Eret, and the twins had made it there before us, surrounding Fishlegs. We approached to see what it was they were looking at.

"What is it? What's all the hollering about?" Gobber asked, stumbling forwards through the brush. His eyes caught mine first, then moved towards the group. "What did you find?"

"There's a cave," my mother answered, moving out of the way so we could see it. Sure enough, there was a small craggled hole in the side of the wall, not much larger than a person. I could tell by looking that most would get in comfortably, but someone the size of Fishlegs, Gobber or Eret might have a bit of trouble.

Astrid walked towards it, placing her hand against the rock as she peered inside. "How deep does it go?"

"We don't know," Fishlegs replied. "I looked in with a flashlight but I can't see the end of the cave," he explained, handing the light to Astrid so she could take a look herself.

More rustling came from behind us as Heather emerged from the jungle. "What's going on?" she asked, looking around until her eyes fell towards the cavern. "Is that…?"

"Yeah," Gobber answered.

"Has anyone…?"

Fishlegs shook his head. "No."

Tuffnut looked around at everyone as they thought. "Are we...are we going to go in there? Can we? I can go, send me!"

"Hold on, nothing's been decided yet," my mother said, eyebrows still knitted together in thought. "Besides, we didn't come here to observe caves, we came here to observe the sinkhole."

"The cave is part of the sinkhole isn't it?" Ruffnut argued. "And there could be all sorts of undiscovered species of amphibians and reptiles-"

"-and insects," Tuffnut interjected.

"...and insects, down in that cave, who knows!"

My mom didn't look convinced. "I don't know, we have no idea what's in there, and we're not prepared for a spelunking expedition."

"I've got all my equipment here Mrs. Haddock, if you wish to send a group in there I'll be happy to assist them. I've cleared plenty of paths through the sinkhole, there's not much more you'll need me for out here for awhile."

Fishlegs nodded. "And this could be very useful for my research, it's possible this cave has a connection to how these sinkholes formed. In there may be evidence of an underground river that eroded its way underneath the mountain."

She sighed. "Alright, alright, we can send a small group of you inside to collect data, but we'll have to plan accordingly."

Ruffnut and Tuffnut nodded enthusiastically. "Yeah, yeah of course!"

My mother nodded. "Alright, so Astrid will lead Fishlegs and the twins into the cave, and the rest of us will stay here and continue research in the sinkhole." She turned to Astrid. "You'll have to prepare them for whatever might happen, make sure they pack what they'll need."

"I will."

"Good, let's get back to it everyone," she said, shooing everyone away from the cave entrance.

"I thought we were going into the cave?" Ruffnut asked, looking disappointed.

She shook her head. "Not now, it's past noon already, we'll finish up for today and you can leave first thing tomorrow or the day after maybe."

Everyone nodded, shuffling back off to whatever it was they were doing before. The twins grumbled but complied anyway, walking back off with the others.

Astrid crossed her arms and turned to Fishlegs. "You sure you'll be able to handle the climbing? I don't want a repeat of what happened when you had to rappel down here."

He nodded sheepishly. "I won't, I promise."

I turned away, trudging back through the jungle towards the camp. The cavern was certainly an interesting find, I would be lying if I said I wasn't curious, but I knew my research was better served out here than in there. As the sun began to set, I curled up in my sleeping bag and pulled my journal back out, writing down the events of the day.

The following morning Astrid and the others set out into the cave with the plan to return back before sunset. The rest of us spent our day as usual, making observations and collecting data. Part of me wished that I had gone down there with them, I wanted to know what it would be like down there, what animals would be there, what it would look like, smell like. I was anxious for them to return so I could ask Astrid a thousand questions about the cave.

"_It's not something where a description could ever encompass what it's like to really be there. You'll have to go and see it for yourself if you want to know."_

I remembered what she had said before, the last time I had asked her to describe a place to me.

"They should be back by now." I looked up, the fire illuminated the worry on my mother's face. "It's past sunset, they should be back by now."

Gobber wiped his mouth with the back of his hand. "Don't stress yourself out so much, they'll come back, it hasn't been that long since the sun went down. They probably found so much great stuff that they lost track of time."

"That doesn't sound like Astrid to me," my mom said, chewing at her thumbnail anxiously.

Gothi nodded without looking up from her book.

"Do you think we should send someone in there to look for them?" Heather asked.

"No, no, don't be hasty now. How long has it been? A couple hours at most, we can wait a little longer to see if they're just slow coming back," Gobber said.

I tucked my pen back into my journal and zipped it up. "You're sure nothing happened?"

Gothi put her book down and signed something to my mother, she nodded and smiled. "_Astrid could make it through anything, she'll bring the others back,_" my mom said for Gothi.

Right on cue, the faint sound of voices echoing in the distance could be heard along with the rustling of bushes and trees as someone approached the camp. My mother, Heather and I all stood up and moved towards the sound. Soon enough, we bumped into them, sweaty, out of breath, and covered in dirt. Astrid stood at the front, her braid was damp and unkempt, hairs sticking out here and there, but she had a huge smile on her face.

Heather glanced over the four of them, all grinning like idiots despite how dirty and exhausted they looked. "What happened?" she asked.

"The cave was a lot deeper than we anticipated," Astrid began.

"And there were insects, _so many _insects," Tuffnut said, using a hand to wipe the sweat from his face. "I couldn't even count how many types I'd never seen before, I tried collecting them all but I ran out of containers."

Ruffnut nodded. "Amphibians and reptiles too, it was endless, we tried to find the end of the cavern but there just wasn't enough time to search every hole and crevice."

"You didn't find the end?" I asked.

"No," Fishlegs confirmed. "We have to go back, I'm certain if we were given more time we could've found more, found evidence of the underground river, we only need the time to really search down there."

My mother looked completely shocked. "You want to go down there again?" They all nodded. "This expedition was for the sinkhole, not these caves, to spend much more time down there-"

"These caves are part of the sinkhole system, maybe even the cause of the sinkholes original formation!" Fishlegs insisted. "We could discover something truly rare in the field of geology, we could discover the whole reason why these sinkholes exist in the first place. If that doesn't apply to our research, I don't know what does!"

The twins both nodded. "The amount of life down there is also incredible, imagine how many new species we could discover if we looked both out here and down there," Ruffnut said, staring intently at my mom.

She sighed and crossed her arms. "How many days?"

"Three or four, maybe five," Astrid said. "I know the next scheduled airdrop is coming tomorrow, we could pack up plenty of supplies and rations, I've already cut down a few weeks worth of firewood while clearing the paths. We'll have everything we need."

"...Alright," she said reluctantly. "Four days, no more. If you still haven't found the end we'll have to schedule another expedition for a different time." They all nodded in agreement. "Now let's get back to camp, you need some food and rest...and maybe a bath."

We all began shuffling back towards the camp where Gobber, Gothi, and Eret were still sitting around the fire. "How was it?" Gobber asked. The twins immediately began recounting their entire trip, all the way from the very start.

I watched as Astrid pulled her braid out, using her fingers to rake her hair as straight as she could. I picked up one of the buckets of filtered rainwater, and brought it over to her, setting it down by her feet where she sat. "Thanks," she said, using her hands to rub the water into her hair.

"I was going to ask you what it was like, but then I realized we've already had this conversation."

She laughed. "So you do learn."

"Sometimes."

Astrid wrung the water from her hair, then she began wiping the dirt off of her face. "It's interesting down there, like a maze, we'll have to take string when we go again, keep us from getting lost."

"Is it scary?"

She shrugged. "If you're afraid of the dark or small spaces I suppose. I'm kind of surprised Fishlegs did so well actually."

"He's a coward, but his geekiness outweighs that."

Astrid smiled. "I guess so."

"Astrid, you want something to eat?" Heather called over as she stood over the fire watching the food as it cooked, stirring it with a large metal ladle.

"I'm coming," she called back, standing up from the log we sat on. "I'll talk to you later," she told me before walking off towards the fire.

I looked around the firepit, the twins were still going on and on about the trip to Gobber, who looked less than interested by now. Astrid and Heather ate together, bathed in the warm, orange glow of the fire. Fishlegs chatted with Eret as he washed the grub and dirt off of himself, and Gothi continued to sit and read as she often did. I couldn't see my mother anywhere, but when I looked over to her tent I could see it glowed faintly from a light within. I walked over, hovering in front of the tent before saying something, though I knew she could see my shadow. "Mom, can I talk to you?"

She shuffled forward and unzipped the front. "What is it Hiccup?"

"I want to go with them."

"With them?"

"Into the cavern."

My mother furrowed her brows, positioning herself so she could look up at me easier. "You want to go in there? Why? Do you even know what it's like to go into a place like that?"

"No, I don't know what it's like. That's why I want to go."


	4. Chapter 4: Cavern

Chapter 4: Cavern

"_It was a shock to her, to say the least, but I really wanted to go down there. I couldn't help how curious I was about it all, and as Astrid had said before, I would never truly understand what it was like unless I went there myself. My mother was reluctant at-"_

There was a knock at my door, and I could see the shadows of feet in the space beneath it. "Are you in there?" A voice called from the other side. It was my father, he sounded tired. His last day of classes was likely full of long-drawn-out goodbyes, he was always popular amongst the other professors as well as all of his students.

"Yeah."

"Your mother's going to be late for dinner, something last minute at work."

"I heard," I said. "Are we going to miss our flight?"

"No, no, you don't have to worry about that." I could hear him shift and the wall creak as he leaned against it. "Are you going to open the door?"

"Probably not."

I heard him sigh. "You've started packing at least? Gobber said you had."

"Yeah, I started."

"Good, good," he mumbled.

"Mr. Jorgenson came to see you, but nobody was here, only me," I told him, carefully watching the shadows of his feet beneath my door.

He moved away from the wall. "Did he? I should've mentioned I would be out all day...what did he say?"

I shrugged. "Something about wanting to catch up before all the guests arrived, then something about coming up with his wife and kid, you know, the one who graduated in the same year as me? That kid."

He chuckled. "Well, he's only got the one. I didn't know you two knew each other, though."

"Barely."

"You're friends at school?"

I scoffed. "He's an arrogant idiot."

My dad laughed at that. "Well, they're coming all the way here to say goodbye to you, so try to be nice to them okay?"

"I'll try."

"And don't stay in your room for too long, the guests will start arriving in an hour or so. This will be your last chance to see everyone before you leave."

"I won't."

There was a brief awkward silence, where neither of us said a word. "I'll see you downstairs then," he said. Then I listened to his footsteps as he made his way back down the hall and then down the stairs. I was once again greeted by the quiet of solitude, the house was large, and on days like this, I really appreciated that. Gobber and my father liked to talk, joke and trade insults, and I preferred to read in peace. I licked the pad of my thumb and flipped to the next page.

"_My mother was reluctant at first to let me go with them, and I understood why. Unlike Fishlegs and maybe even the twins, I didn't exactly have a clear purpose to go down there. I could also tell that she was worried for me, I couldn't blame her for that, I was her only son, but sometimes I wished she would treat me my age. It took some prodding, but eventually I convinced her that my research might benefit from looking at the behaviours of various cave-dwelling species and how they may have adapted from living above ground. When it was announced that I would be going along, everyone seemed quite surprised, especially Fishlegs. Though they accepted the idea much faster than my mother had. _

_After the plane had air-dropped our second week's supplies, we got to work packing up for the next four days in the cave. Astrid oversaw all of it, making sure we had everything we needed but nothing we didn't need. When the day finally arrived, I was so excited my knees knobbed furiously during the short walk to the entrance..._

* * *

"You've checked that you have all your food?"

"Yes."

"And your headlamp? With extra batteries?"

"Yes and yes."

"How about your-"

"Mom," I stopped her, "I'm going to be fine, you don't have to worry so much. Everyone is going to be with me, Astrid knows what she's doing, we'll be fine, everything's fine."

She sighed. "I just wasn't expecting you to go off spelunking for multiple days like this. Usually in a situation like this we'd plan to return with an entire team of experts to come with us, not just go spontaneously."

"Astrid was a rock climber, and besides, who knows when we'll get another chance to come out here. Getting permission to enter the park wasn't exactly easy." She bit her lip nervously. "Mom, we'll be fine, it's only for a few days, the rest of the expedition I'll stay in the sinkhole."

She nodded reluctantly. "Alright, alright, you're not a little boy anymore. Just take care of yourself."

I smiled. "I will." I turned to look towards the others, they were all standing around the small cavern entrance, chatting amongst each other as they waited for me to arrive. "I should get going," I told my mom, she gave me a quick hug and I made my way over to the entrance. "Okay, I'm ready."

Ruffnut scoffed at me. "About time, you sure you don't need your mommy to come with you?" Tuffnut snickered and Astrid glowered at her.

"Let's just get going okay?" Astrid said, turning towards the cavern. "We've only got four days to gather as much data as we can." She clicked her headlamp on and easily slipped through the narrow gap into the darkness, I could hear the soft echoing steps she made from inside.

I didn't need anything else, and before any of the others could make a move, I squeezed in after her. It was incredibly dark inside, I could see the beam from Astrid's headlamp illuminating one of the narrow passages. "Which way?" I asked, as Ruffnut followed after me.

"Turn your light on," she told me. I obliged her, clicking the light on and looking around the inside of the cavern. It was small, maybe the size of my first-floor bathroom. By the time Tuffnut had followed us inside it had gotten a little tight.

"We're going this way right?" Tuffnut asked, nodding his head towards one of the passages.

Astrid shuffled towards the cavern entrance. "Hold on, Fishlegs still hasn't gotten in." Fishlegs grunted and groaned as he struggled to squeeze through the tight jagged crevice. I scowled at the sound of the twins snickering amongst each other. Astrid reached out to grab his arm, helping to tug him through.

"You good?" I asked him.

Fishlegs nodded. "Yeah."

Astrid pulled a roll of fluorescent tape from one of the pouches attached it to her harness. Then she went around to all the crevices but two and marked them off each with a small X made of tape. "These are the ones we've already fully explored during our last search, these two go quite a bit deeper, so we should pick one to look through first."

"What did you find in each of these before you had to turn back?" I asked.

Tuffnut pointed towards the one on the right. "That one had significantly more insects and other lifeforms, I say we start that way."

Ruffnut nodded. "It was also much easier to navigate, the gaps were bigger, and there were fewer inclines and declines."

"But this one goes downward," Fishlegs said, pointing towards the left cavern. "If I'm going to find that underground river, we have to go towards the lower parts of the plateau, that's where we'll learn more."

"When we went down that one, the holes we had to climb through only got smaller and smaller, do you think you'd even fit if we kept going?" Ruffnut asked, crossing her arms with a smug look on her face.

Tuffnut sniggered. "Yeah, besides, we don't even know if this supposed river even exists. We know there are animals and all sorts of things in that direction, shouldn't we be going towards the route we know will give us data to collect?"

I frowned at the surly mocking tone in their voices as they spoke to Fishlegs. "There's no reason to speak to him that way, we can spend time searching through them both."

"What if we go down that way and we can't find the end?" Tuffnut asked. "There were so many insects I wanted to collect last time but didn't have the space for, that's the whole reason I wanted to come back, not so fishy over here could spend the whole time chasing a river that might not exist."

"Who's to say there won't be insects or amphibians in this part of the cave? We spent most of the time last trip looking in the part you wanted, you can't always pick the direction we go in, this is a group effort," Fishlegs retorted.

"Okay, okay, stop!" Astrid exclaimed. "We're going to be here for up to four days, knowing that there are animals who need to be collected not too deep in that direction, I say we start in the lower parts where Fishlegs wants to go."

The twins both turned to glower at her. "Why are you taking his side?" Ruffnut asked, sounding a little annoyed.

She sighed and crossed her arms. "I'm not taking sides, the less we have to carry early on, the better. Since you know you have a bunch of insects and reptiles and such you want to capture, we should do that as close to the end of the trip as possible, climbing with a bunch of filled samples boxes isn't going to be easy."

"We have four whole days," I pointed out. "If we can't find the end by the second day we can head back to where you want to go, there'll be plenty of time."

Ruffnut grumbled. "Fine, as long as we get back to find my specimens."

We began to head down further into the cavern, since they had already searched a little of this part of the cave, there were small tape marking made by Astrid all along the narrow crevices. It was dark and damp, and only got darker and damper the further we traveled down. The ground was steep and slippery, I gripped to the lines that Astrid had nailed into the sides of the cave for support, though soon we had entered unexplored territory where there was nothing to hold onto besides the cold walls of the cavern. Every once in awhile we'd find a diverging path, only to search and find it to be a dead end. The twins seemed to get more and more aggravated, as we only kept going deeper with no signs of life or anything besides rocks and darkness. Time seemed to pass excruciatingly slowly, I couldn't tell how long it had been since we entered, but I swore we had to have been walking for almost the entire day.

"This is pointless, we're not going to find anything," Tuffnut grumbled.

Fishlegs shook his head indignantly. "There's got to be some sort of water source, I'm sure if we keep going we'll find the river eventually."

"Your stupid river doesn't exist," Ruffnut retorted.

"The deeper we go, the wetter it gets," Fishlegs pointed out.

Tuffnut sniggered. "Heh, that's what she said."

"Enough already," I groaned. "We're making a compromise here, we're searching this way first, if nothing comes up by tomorrow we'll go back to where you guys wanted."

"Whatever," Ruffnut grumbled.

Astrid sighed as she wiped the sweat from her brow. "It's almost six, I think now is as good a time as any to make camp," she said looking around, the space they were in was slightly larger than most of the narrow paths they had been climbing down. "We're all tried I'm sure, and we can get an early start tomorrow, five am, no later. If we don't find anything by noon, we'll head back. Sound fair?"

"I guess," Tuffnut said reluctantly.

Fishlegs and I both nodded. Astrid nodded back. "Aright, let's get unpacked for the night, you should all have your food in your own bags."

Everyone began pulling out their bedrolls and pre-packaged meals. I wasn't looking forward to the food, but I was hungry, and my body was about to collapse from exhaustion. I would sleep anywhere, even the cold, damp floor of the cavern. Astrid crept over as I spread my bedroll out on the ground. "Thanks by the way," she said to me.

"For what?" I asked.

"Backing me up, just now, and also this morning. Sometimes I feel like I'm traveling with a bunch of children. It's nice to have at least one reasonable person around."

I smiled. "No problem, I know they can be a handful sometimes."

"No kidding, I just hope we find _something _tomorrow or we won't be hearing the end of it."

I laughed. "Yeah, you're probably right about that."

"Anyway, that's all I wanted to say, we should both get some rest. See you in the morning."

"Dark and early," I joked as she began shuffling away.

"Pardon?"

I awkwardly wagged a hand at her. "Nevermind, it was stupid." She just nodded and shuffled off to where her things were.

The night was as dreary and uncomfortable as you'd imagine it would be. Though I was so tired I still managed to fall asleep pretty quickly. When Fishlegs came over to jostle me awake, I almost thought it was night in the fog of my sleep, forgetting where we were. Day and night were impossible to tell apart, and my internal clock was completely messed up by morning.

"What a beautiful morning," I groaned as I climbed out of my bedroll with slow, agonizing movements.

Fishlegs chuckled. "I'll say, c'mon let's get going, we need to find that river as fast as possible. I'll show the twins it exists."

I only nodded in response, gathering my things up and shuffling them back into my back. We continued downwards through narrower and narrower paths that started to look eerily familiar, like every crevice was the same one over and over. My eyes weren't adjusting well to the artificial light from the headlamps, and it was getting harder and harder for me to see properly.

"Looks like we'll have to go back, bummer," I heard Ruffnut say in a flat, unsympathetic tone.

I looked around to see what the problem was, but I couldn't. Then I realized, that _was _the problem. We had reached a dead end, a larger part of the cavern, tall, almost two stories tall, but nothing but rock walls surrounding us.

"No...there must be another spot somewhere that we missed."

"Fishlegs...we checked every opening, every crack, this was the last one. There's nowhere else to go back back," Astrid said. I could tell she didn't want to have to say this, but it was the truth.

He shook his head defiantly. "No, this is impossible, the water had to drain out somewhere, this is the only way that makes sense."

"Just admit that your stupid river doesn't exist," Tuffnt groaned, throwing his head back.

Ruffnut nodded in agreement. "Yes, and besides, there's only an hour and a half until noon, give it up, we should go back where we know _something _useful is."

"This...this can't be…" Fishlegs murmured to himself in complete shock and disbelief.

I looked upwards to the ceiling of the cave we were in, and noticed something on the upper right wall, several feet over our heads. "Uh...what's that?" I asked, pointing towards it. In the dim light, I couldn't quite tell.

Astrid looked, her light flashing up to where mine was set. "Oh my gods...there's...there's an opening up there."

Fishlegs' head snapped up to see what we were looking at, and a huge smile beamed across his face. "I knew it! I knew it couldn't have ended here, it has to have a water source, I'm telling you!"

Ruffntut began shaking her head. No. There's no way we're wasting any time climbing all the way up there, we only have an hour and a half before you said we would start heading back!"

"It'll only take twenty, thirty minutes tops for us to get up there," Astrid said, "and I haven't forgotten our deal, if there's nothing up there we'll head back, I promise."

Ruffnut and Tuffnut both groaned in unison.

I nudged Ruffnut. "Come on, you're not even the slightest bit curious what's all the way up there?"

Ruffnut frowned. "Rocks?"

"Maybe, we'll never know if we don't at least take a look."

Tuffnut began bobbing his head side-to-side. "It's worth a peek, she said it'll only take twenty minutes, we still have plenty of time."

"Fine," Ruffnut said, crossing her arms. "But if there's nothing we go back."

"Deal!" Fishlegs cried out, rushing over to the spot in the cave directly beneath the opening.

Astrid walked over next to him. "Alright, everybody just stand back for a bit while I get the cables set up." She began working to put the rock climbing cord up so we could safely make it to the top. She climbed to the top free-hand and attached the cables to the top, calling down for us when she had finished. Fishlegs went first, both surprisingly and unsurprisingly. Afterward, the twins went, Tuffnut followed by Ruffnut. Finally it was my turn, and I slowly scaled the wall, stumbling over the edge.

"Is there anything?" I asked as Astrid took my arm and pulled me up. "A few paths...much larger paths, but nothing we haven't really seen before. Fishlegs is still looking around."

I nodded. Astrid began packing up a few things, making sure they weren't a tripping hazard. "What's that?" I asked, pointing to one of the strange metal tools she had in her rock climbing kit.

She smiled and picked it up to show me. "It's a few things...but mostly it's a climbing pick. I don't use it much when I'm not climbing on ice, but it has a few different functions and tools inside...do you want to hold it"

I couldn't help but smile back, she seemed so excited that I had asked. "Sure," I said reaching out to take the pick. It was lighter than I had imagined, but I supposed it was built to be as light as possible to make it easy to carry around. "So where are th-"

A scream cut me off and both Astrid and I jumped to our feet. Neither Fishlegs nor the twins could be seen from where we stood and we both went running towards the sound of the yell. I could tell as I got closer that the person screaming was Fishlegs, I turned to tell Astrid but she was nowhere to be found and only darkness surrounded me. "Astrid!" I called out. "Fishlegs!" Nothing. It was suddenly very, very silent, all I could hear was my own heavy breathing. I started to slowly scan around myself when I caught a glimmer of something from the corner of my eye. My head whipped around frantically, and I could see enormous glowing yellow-green eyes, terror rushed through my entire body, and before I knew it, I had frantically flung Astrid's climbing pick towards the eyes and stumbled backward. I heard a clang and a yelp, then nothing as my headlamp flickered from the impact of hitting the ground.

I sucked in sharp breaths of air as I simultaneously crawled backward and smacked at my headlamp to turn back on. Finally it flickered back to life, and I quickly looked back to where the eyes had been. Whatever it was, it was now slumped on the ground, a scarlet trickle of blood came from its torso. I could see it better now, it was jet back, huge with large bat-like wings and four short legs. My breath hitched in my throat as it shifted ever so slightly. It was still alive. I shuffled my backpack off in a panic, nervous hands digging through it for my utility knife, never moving my eyes from the creature in front of me.

When I finally retrieved my knife, I shakily lifted myself up, approaching it ever so slowly. I knew I had to kill it, kill it before it regained its strength and killed me. With its sheer size, I knew I would never win in a fair fight. I stopped as its head came into my view, it's huge yellow-green eyes were still open, they glowed so brightly in the darkness, staring back at me with a look of utter defeat. I lifted the knife up above my head. I had to kill it.

Then I lowered my knife, my eyes drifting to the wound I inflicted on its side. I had my first aid kit, I could help it. I knew I had to kill it, but I could help it.


End file.
